Wardolphin.com loves art, all kinds of art. What I may love even more are Baltimore artists. Baltimore is the kind of place that you will love and hate at the same time. You overlook the downside and see the beauty, if ever there was a diamond in the rough, it’s Baltimore. So much history here in terms of art that whenever I come across a new artist I know little about, I try to present his work to as many people as I know.
Not only does this help the artist, but it inspires others to create. With that being said… I would like to introduce all our Wardolphin followers/readers to DougF aka Hatter23. In his own words “I don't know if a modeler such as myself can really be considered to be an artist so much as a craftsman, because it certainly isn't high art.” I disagree. If you look at his work, you are not just seeing a scale model of Baltimore… but you are actually get the ‘feel’ of Baltimore. We met in the strangest of places.. he’s an accountant. After making a statement similar to this “With a job like a tax accountant, I need hobbies to keep me sane” I became intrigued. What I found was a LEGO alternate universe, and although I’d seen all kinds of LEGO buildings from “Star Wars” to “Apocalypse Now”, nothing struck me like this. I present DOUGF aka Hatter23.
"First, I love what you’re doing and I'm particularly interested cause it represents Baltimore. What made you decide to create this scale models and of Baltimore specifically?"I have always loved Baltimore. It is the center of everything that happens in my life, and naturally I gravitated towards it. And with much effort, I ended up buying a row home in my favorite neighborhood, Fells Point.
I had liked model trains and did some stuff with them as a child and teen, but it seemed that you were locked into building the model that was sold to you. You could customize it, but deep down, you were just still building by direction. Furthermore, if you altered things severely you had to scrap a great deal of this very expensive stuff.
I tried my hand at some Science fiction model soldier games, and while I had a good hand at painting them, what I really liked was building the scenery.
Then in about 2003 I bought a Lego set for my Nephew, I liked the look of it so much I went back and bought one for myself. Then another and another. I was hooked when between the Oriental sets that were widely available at the time and the fact that I found the Lego made train. Aha! here I found where that if I wanted to alter put together my own model, nothing would be wasted. I could build a model train town purely my own, no kits involved.
Lego was made expressly to hack.
It only seems natural that when I got into Lego modeling that I would look out my own door. To the city around me, and to draw inspiration from a town that I could easily look at, loved, and had major industrial/train influences....perfect for making a model train set up.
That being said, part of the vibe of Baltimore, that "retro-longingness" drew me to another thing I can't get enough of; Googie Style architecture. There isn't much left in Baltimore, though you can still find some in Ocean City. Not only is this a dying piece of Americana, but really a challenge to build in a medium that is rectangular in design. And what was "in" at the period that "Hairspray" is set in.
"Give us an idea of how long it would take to do your average piece from say start to finish?"
It is a few hours here, a few hours there thing, but I would guess about 5 weeks.
Of course, when I am making an additional module for a model I've already worked out the basics of, the learning curve is shorter.
"One thing I noticed was your attention to detail. I have often said this separates a passion from a hobby, your detail on some of the models are very important because of how you make them from scratch, how you substitute pieces, and how I would imagine some things you can envision just simply do not exist.
Please give our readers some examples of this (i.e.- lights on the Mall scale)."
Sometime you realize there is something that you cannot build. but you then think of other items that are in the same vein, the same style and time frame of what you are trying to achieve. That whole mall was born out of trying to achieve the curved upswept roofs of the strip malls that I can vaguely remember being taken to in the early seventies in Dundalk.
I had bought from the bargain leftovers of a Toys-R-us a severely marked down snowboarding LEGO set. I realized the part that I though unusable was perfect for what I was trying to achieve. I even bought a second identical set online, at Bricklink.com, for more of them.
When I was building I again put myself in the retro-future mindset. What did people in 1962 imagine the future to look like? That’s what gave me the idea for the lights. Luckily I had previously purchased some of the clear bell jar pieces for a never realized project of robots with brains in jars as heads, and used them to make the lights for the strip mall.
"Give us an idea of the level of commitment it takes to do what you do and also to enter exhibits that display your work."
Commitment? That's an awfully heavy word. It is a matter of "do you care enough to invest the money and time?" And, most importantly that includes the time to sort out the pieces and to build projects that fail. Because you are going to fail sometimes at any art. As to entering displays, well, that’s more of getting to the point that you can feel at least comfortable doing so. I don't have the time, money, or talent to compete with the displays such as "Brickistan,"
but I am at least good at what I do.
"Have you ever considered doing something in this field professionally? (ex.- City scales for movie sets, archeology, architecture firms etc)Only in pipe dreams, sure. I still have in the basement a bridge that was built for a independent film that never came to pass.
In particular, since Lego company has gotten the license agreement with Disney and Pixar for "Cars," I noticed the majority of the architecture of the town "Radiator Springs" is Googie, I would love if they ended up contacting me. But that's just a dream.
"I love your piece of the Baltimore row homes, from the model homes to the people eating crabs in the back it's true blue Baltimore. Have you considered making more of these?"
Absolutely. I have plans to do at least two more modules of my East Baltimore row home Series, to at least include a roof deck, a bodega, and a corner hardware store or bar.
"Beyond exhibits where else can we find your work and what do you have coming up in the future our readers should be on the lookout for?"
Really, just the exhibits, and I will be posting some on my live journal account. However, after pouring so much time into getting every ready for the convention, I have quite a bit of regular life stuff that was put off, and just plain sorting out all the parts I got at the convention before I start seriously building again. My next major project is trying to do a Ocean City Googie style motel, and "take it to the next level" as the expression goes. Since it will involve more parts and non 90 degree angles than anything I've ever done before, I expect it will take me months to complete.
